Business Contact - Info Very limited

[Guest]

Hello,

I'm reading through the documentation and the web site and it all looks like
marketing propaganda. I can't find any info on what I would guess is the
questions just about anyone would like info on. We're not looking for a
fancy CRM program but some of the basic additional functionality for Outlook.
We use Goldmine but it seems like BCM with Exchange should be able to have
some basic advantages that we can't seem to find.

We are running Exchange 2k3 Enterprise with SP2 all our workstations have
office 2k3 Pro with all SPs and patches. I've only tried BCM on a
standalone workstation not connected to an exchange server.

1. I'd like to find info about integrating BC with Exchange (not installed
on any machines yet). We'll only need one contact database for all our
users. - only 10 people will be accessing it.

2. I'd like to know how much will be accessable via Outlook Web Access.

3. Will BC info be synchable wirelessly on WM5 with Exchange 2k3 SP2 and
MSFT?

4. Does the BCM client for PPC work with WM5?

5. On my standalone workstation it installed a SQL client but it isn't
attached to any server - what is the purpose of it?

Thanks!


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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-a1980ca0dba0&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.bcm

 

[BillR [MVP]]

1. None that I know of.
2. as above.
3. synch of BCM contact info can be done via the client machines.
4. BCM uses that instance of MSDE. It can be shared but suffers from MSDE
restrictions.

I think you should be looking more for CRM. BCM was more intended to be a
single-user desktop application that has grown little to allow limited
sharing.

 

[boe]

Thanks - all three of my clients are looking to avoid spending any
additional money. They already have purchased Goldmine, Act and had a
program written for them. They'd like to get off these systems and use
Outlook since BCM does nearly all that they need it for but it is lacking a
few key things -
1 Integration with Exchange so that contact info can be seen in OWA - if
they just let you synch the key data with a regular contact folder it would
be great - they could live without the activity although having that would
be great. Even if we bought some expensive CRM solution - it would probably
have the same weaknesses listed below.

2 Better documentation on how to run it off a server so that you don't have
to have someones workstation on all the time. I'm sure I could put outlook
on a server but I'd rather just run whatever version of SQL is necessary on
the serve and optimize the workstations for accessing the server.

3. It looks like the PPC client is for PPC 2003 - not for WM5. I doubt that
Word, Excel and Outlook won't be ready to run on Vista when it comes out.

4. Synching of the data wirelessly like you can your other exchange data
using a WM5 phone would be great - once again if just the key contact data
that currently sycnchs w/PPC would be great - once again if BCM had a synch
program for regular outlook contacts this could be done - it would strip out
the activity but that is better than not having the contact info. If we do
it manually - we have to know what contact info was updated and remember to
do the copy every time.

 

[BillR [MVP]]

If you re using Exchange then you are possibly better off using Public
folders and custom forms (if needed). You get the benefit of using cached
mode to connect to Exchange.
Synch issues will be resolved.

 

[Guest]

Caveats I have recently learned:

1. BCM doesn't support customized forms
2. BCM doesn't support WM5, even with the newest PDA patch
3. BCM doesn not have an automated backup utility, a limitation since it
seems to have been designed to be installed on workstations rather than
servers

My research seems to indicate that BCM has outgrown the "useless enough not
to consider" phase but has yet to mature to the point of being suitable for
most small businesses, (at least those that I deal with). The information
readily available via MS website conveniently leaves out these gotchas.

Good luck!

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Can anyone say the word "limited?"

Here are some great alternatives to consider until this turkey (BCM) is
brought up to speed with the rest of the real world:

http://www.outlookwise.com/Products/MXContact/index.htm
http://www.teamscope.com/
http://www.salesoutlook.net/
http://www.avidian.com

-THP

Caveats I have recently learned:

1. BCM doesn't support customized forms
2. BCM doesn't support WM5, even with the newest PDA patch
3. BCM doesn not have an automated backup utility, a limitation since it
seems to have been designed to be installed on workstations rather than
servers

My research seems to indicate that BCM has outgrown the "useless enough not
to consider" phase but has yet to mature to the point of being suitable for
most small businesses, (at least those that I deal with). The information
readily available via MS website conveniently leaves out these gotchas.

Good luck!

Thanks - all three of my clients are looking to avoid spending any
additional money. They already have purchased Goldmine, Act and had a

[quoted text clipped - 78 lines]

 

[Guest]

Wow. Which one of these solution do you think is best?

Can anyone say the word "limited?"

Here are some great alternatives to consider until this turkey (BCM) is
brought up to speed with the rest of the real world:

http://www.outlookwise.com/Products/MXContact/index.htm
http://www.teamscope.com/
http://www.salesoutlook.net/
http://www.avidian.com

-THP

Caveats I have recently learned:

1. BCM doesn't support customized forms
2. BCM doesn't support WM5, even with the newest PDA patch
3. BCM doesn not have an automated backup utility, a limitation since it
seems to have been designed to be installed on workstations rather than
servers

My research seems to indicate that BCM has outgrown the "useless enough not
to consider" phase but has yet to mature to the point of being suitable for
most small businesses, (at least those that I deal with). The information
readily available via MS website conveniently leaves out these gotchas.

Good luck!

Thanks - all three of my clients are looking to avoid spending any
additional money. They already have purchased Goldmine, Act and had a

[quoted text clipped - 78 lines]

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-a1980ca0dba0&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.bcm

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

I have been happily using MX Contact. It seems to be the most versatile and
extremely affordable. I have not looked back at all with any regret.

-THP

Wow. Which one of these solution do you think is best?

Can anyone say the word "limited?"

[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]

 

[gary9710]

SalesOutlook is the only Outlook CRM alternative that allows both
Outlook and OWA access as well as contact synch for PDA support. Plus
full forms customizations. They have a low cost SBE $199 per user
workgroup solution as well as a full CRM product.

The other solutions do not have a OWA client.

Wow. Which one of these solution do you think is best?

Can anyone say the word "limited?"

Here are some great alternatives to consider until this turkey (BCM) is
brought up to speed with the rest of the real world:

http://www.outlookwise.com/Products/MXContact/index.htm
http://www.teamscope.com/
http://www.salesoutlook.net/
http://www.avidian.com

-THP

Caveats I have recently learned:

1. BCM doesn't support customized forms
2. BCM doesn't support WM5, even with the newest PDA patch
3. BCM doesn not have an automated backup utility, a limitation since it
seems to have been designed to be installed on workstations rather than
servers

My research seems to indicate that BCM has outgrown the "useless enough not
to consider" phase but has yet to mature to the point of being suitable for
most small businesses, (at least those that I deal with). The information
readily available via MS website conveniently leaves out these gotchas.

Good luck!

Thanks - all three of my clients are looking to avoid spending any
additional money. They already have purchased Goldmine, Act and had a
[quoted text clipped - 78 lines]

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-a1980ca0dba0&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.bcm